As a college coach how would you pull a a team out of a 0-11 start to the season? What key adjustments would you make?

I have witnessed a bad start to a local university's men's basketball team. They started 0-11. They have 5 freshman who are all looking at around 15 minutes a game. Coach seems to constantly be yelling at his players without encouagement. Do college players need encouragement? Who would be the first to blame for the bad start, and what would be a way to jumpstart the team on a right path?

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This is not a unique problem- Many teams cycle through rough patches. Obviously, a young team that is building needs good character development (on and off the court). Upperclassmen can certainly help but it is the coach who needs to look hard at his characteristics. Does not sound like he is putting anything in his player's "bank". Players need encouragement as well as direction (notice- not yelling) Yes once in a while you have to let loose but constant badgering is demeaning to players and the program.
I try the 5:1 for positive:negatives. If you are not fully invested in the program neither will be your players.
I hope it turns around quickly.
kc

Can't answer without knowing the problems causing the losses. Weak defense? Poor shooting/scoring? Poor rebounding? BBall IQ development of the players/team? There's too many issues to make a general assumption. First determine what it is your players "as individuals" lack. Second, find out which of the three major areas is worst as a "team"--defense? rebounding? or offense (scoring/shooting--two different phenomenon)? Design drills for improvement: both suited for individual weaknesses and team weaknesses. Do not! Do not! let your team rely on offense to win games. It's defense, then rebounding, then finish (scoring/shooting). This is very important because if you "rely" on scoring/shooting first!--your confidence will coincide accordingly. That is: shoot well--play well. Shoot miserable and they will play miserable. Hope this helps!

Agreed. For every correction you make to a player, you should also compliment them. Example, if a player is out of position on defense, the offensive player dirbbles by him, the defensive player comes from behind and steals the ball.

"Great way to get the ball back (Off. Player), next time make sure you are in your defensive stance and your man won't go by you. Good job though, nice steal, way to not give up."

The porblem with a team that is 0-11 is they start to lose confidence in the coach and their own abilities. Hasthis coach been there for long? First year?

Tree Rollins said:

encouragement is the only way. back in 07 my team got off to an 0 and 8 start. one of the things i did was get them away from the game of basketball, we went to the movies. i used that movie to help them see that working together everybody wins

This coach as been here going on 5 years. His winning percentage is a little under 40 percent. His best season was his first year under the last coaches 5 graduating seniors. I am loving the idea of the 5:1 ratio I never really thougt about how many positives to a negative. I also feel that the movies is also a great team building experience that takes the athletes away from the game..Being athlete at the college level myself I always hated doing the same things in practice the same drills for 5 months. So a trip to the movies is a great idea, Im also thinking about adding other team building excercises such as the ones that business management teach to students.

Dustin Zachary Barnes said:

Agreed. For every correction you make to a player, you should also compliment them. Example, if a player is out of position on defense, the offensive player dirbbles by him, the defensive player comes from behind and steals the ball.

"Great way to get the ball back (Off. Player), next time make sure you are in your defensive stance and your man won't go by you. Good job though, nice steal, way to not give up."

The porblem with a team that is 0-11 is they start to lose confidence in the coach and their own abilities. Hasthis coach been there for long? First year?

Tree Rollins said:

encouragement is the only way. back in 07 my team got off to an 0 and 8 start. one of the things i did was get them away from the game of basketball, we went to the movies. i used that movie to help them see that working together everybody wins

I agree with those of you that lean towards being positive and encouraging. I am an assistant coach at the women's JuCo level and even though we have a winning record, we have taken some pretty tough loses which have a way of bringing a team down emotionally. So, you and your staff have to be the first line cheerleaders. Patience, encouragement and being positive tells your players that you believe in them and hopefully they'll play their hearts our for you. Win or loose, you can't ask for anything more than that from a team.

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The first thing that needs to happen is to get back to the fundamentals, because this is where most problems begin. Then you must keep working on what you believe in and instead of worrying about a win focus on overall improvement.

I agree with Gary Jefferson. Because i am in the same position as that coach, we started 1-8 and now we are 3-14. i am a first year coach who walk into a team of players i didnt recruit or know. I agree you need to be positive but u also need to be strict.. We would give up 24off. reb and in 5 games have 100TO. i would write a play up and they would go on the court and not even try to do what i ask. The hardest part for me was getting them to buy into my system even if they dont agree with it. I played D1 and pro for 12yrs and i had kids who were not that good telling me what they think we should do. needless to say they are gone. I told the guys that i didnt care about the score, i just needed them to listen and be coachable because "we did it your way and its not working. now we do it my way". I think that was the turn around for us as a team because they understand when i say something,i mean it. We may have only won three games so far but we have improved as a team so much in every stat except TO because i just dont have any real ball handlers. we are not getting blownout by 50-60pts anymore and team sprit is up. We are just not that good,but i was proud of them in the month of Jaunary and i made sure they knew that!

Are you "witnessing" the games or the practices? Are the freshman starters? How long has the coach been there? Where does he recruit from? Who is their leader on or off the court? Do they have one? What, if anything do they do well?

As you see by my questions, there are a lot of factors that go into an 0-11 or an 11-0, some of which have NOTHING to do with basketball. What conference is the school in? D1? D2? NAIA?

Oh, All players have needs. But, each player hasn't a different need. Some players you can yell at and they try harder. Some players will come apart like a cheap watch. Trick is to know which one is which.

My team started 0-7 this year and our coach did not show much encouragement but he continued to ride us even harder than before and we won our eighth game. That was all we needed to get us over the loosing streak. We have now won 7 out of 8 games and finished the season with a .500 winning percentage.